KAUFMANN: An Exception To The Rheingau Rule

By Stuart Pigott - last revision 11.08.25

In the German wine scene everybody knows that Eva Raps and Urban Kaufmann are the couple who run the Kaufmann winery in Hattenheim/Rheingau, but unconscious ageism often leads to a sterotypical response from young somms when their names are menitioned: „oh…yeah…them…“ And sometimes even the fact that they are biodynamic and Demeter barely seems to move the needle. 

But just a moment, the Stuart Pigott team regards their 2025s as some of the best wines made in the Rheingau in recent years. To which some of the coolest people in the German wine scene will probably say, „oh…yeah…really?“ Reality can be so complicated and uncomfortable that it’s easier to double down on preconceptions than face up to the truth. How very 21st century!

I always find it really interesting talking to Urban Kaufmann, the only Swiss winemaker working in Germany. „I’m the only exotic creature!“ he said to me recently, when writing this portrait gave me an excuse for another long conversation with him. But what would be the best way to put this? Odd One Out? Exception To The Rule? Even the latter might also be considered perjorative…but back to the story, because it’s a good one!

Urban was a cheesemaker before purchasing the Hans Lang winery in Hattenheim in 2013, and the following year he and Eva Raps suddenly found themselves confronted with one of the most difficult wine harvests in recent memory (rain plus the Japanese Cherry Vinegar Fly). I remember first tasting their 2014 wines in 2015 with Eva Raps at the legendary (now closed) Weinstein wine bar in Berlin, and being impressed by how well they’d done under the challenging conditions of autumn 2014. 

I also remember being stunned by how openly Eva Raps - for many years the adminstrator of the VDP elite winery association - told me how she’d found Urban by placing an advert in a magazine seeking a partner in her project of taking over a winery.  She ended up with a lot more than a business partner, but my wife Alexandra hunted me down on Facebook, and we’ve been together for a decade. How very 21st century, in the positive sense!

It also strikes me as logical that such a unique winemaking couple should have such a unique winery building: a single storey above ground-level storey with a large deck on which a huge red K stands. At first I was sceptical of the label design that played with the mostly red plus some white colours of the Swiss flag, but now it looks like one of the most distinctive new labels of that period.

This applies particuarly to the winery’s second from top dry Riesling: Tell. This cuvée of several of Hattenheim’s top sites - „we only have vineyards in the best sites, but we decided to only use one of the single-vineyard site names for Riesling - was called Tell at the suggestion of friends, and to Urban and Eva’s surprised delight it turned out to be a “volltreffer“, or direct hit.

 The next surprise is how remarkable the Pinot Noir red wines are, begining with the entry-level Pinot Noir +. „I had to figure out how to make a red wine that matured in cask for only about half a year. The challenge is to get enough of the carbon dioxide from the fermentation before bottling,“ he told me. The 2025 shows how well this pragmatic approach works.  No wonder Pinot Noir is now 15% of their production. 

Then they have the oldest Chardonnay vines in the Rheingau, an experimental planting from 1985, long before the grape varierty was officially legalized. They planted Chardonnay again in 2018, this time with Burgundian clones, so they have a real commitment to the variety. A cuvée of Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay is very German, this combination having been invented by Karl Heinz Johner in the Kaiserstuhl/Baden in the middle of the 1980s. The Kaufmann version of this is called Uno and it's one of the best.

The majority of the Kaufmann wines are still Rieslings, but it would be strange if it weren’t given that Hattenheim has such a long and illustrious history with the Rheingau and Germany’s most famous grape variety. „2025 was the fastest harvest we ever had. Everything was simultaneously ripe!“ Urban told me. And it strikes us that he and Eva made the right call by racing to bring these grapes in and then doing a vinification which was neither fady or pretentious in any way. The results speak for themselves…as long as approach you them without prejudice.

EXCEPTIONAL VALUE RHEINGAU ! 

Kaufmann  Rheingau Riesling  Tell  2025 – 12% / What a sensational dry Riesling! Fresh-cut garden herbs, a touch of passion fruit and Amalfi lemon provide a lively side to the extremely long, warm finish. Wow! A cuvée of wines from various top sites. 94 (TE)

Kaufmann  Rheingau  Pinot Noir  +  2025 – 12.5% / This is a beautifully crafted, elegant, light-bodied Pinot Noir from the Rheingau. Notes of raw meat, red currant and baking spices lead to a bright and refreshing finish that will surprise and delight! 92 (TE)

21 wines tasted with everything rated 90 or higher.